1691-1754; poet; b. nr. Charleville, Co. Cork; ed. locally, prob. in school founded by Roger Boyle; worked as farmer, owned a mill at Kiltoohig, and was also a teacher; m. Agnes White, prob. a Protestant; he copied Keatings Forus Feasa ar Eirinn in 1720 and wrote Ar Bhás Regent na Fraingce on the death of Philip, Duke of Orleans, 1723 - reproaching him with indifference towards the Jacobite cause in Ireland; Mo Ghille Mear and Ag taisteal dom trí na críocha are examples of his Jacobite poetry; Comhracann mo mhacaomh is a translation of My Laddie Can Fight, a Jacobite ballad in English;

he presided over poetic meetings on his farm and visited the Maigue poets in Croom, Co. Limerick, he where he clashed with Eoghan Ó Caoimh and Tadhg Gaelach Ó Súilleabháin, in 1735; he composed a satire on death of a Tipperary landlord, Colonel James Dawson of Aherlow, 1737, and was forced to leave his native district in consequence; he also commenced a translation of Homer; Seán Ó Tuama (an Ghrinn) issued a barántas in his honour and his death was marked by elegies from Ó Tuama and Seán Ó Murchadha na Ráithíneach; the works were edited by Risteárd Ó Foghludha (1932). CAB DIW DIB OCIL

ReferencesCharles Read, ed., A Cabinet of Irish Literature (3 vols., 1876-78), gives bio-data: 1691-1754 [anglice John MacDonnell], b. Charleville, Co. Cork; a man of great erudition, and a profound Irish antiquarian and poet [who] had made valuable collections, and was writing in his native tongue a history of Ireland .. (OHalloran, History of Ireland). Buried Ballyslough, nr. Charleville. Hardiman ranks him in Irish the equal of Pope in English, fortunately for his genius and fame Pope was born on the right side of the Channel. Mac Donnell a rank Jacobite who had to save himself from bard-hunters; works cited are Granu Wail, [trans. not named], Claraghs Lament (trans. Hardiman), Old Erin in the Sea (trans. W. B. Guinee, of Buttevant), and Claraghs Dream (trans. J. C. Mangan).

Henry Boylan, A Dictionary of Irish Biography [rev. edn.] (Gill & Macmillan 1988), b. Ráth Luirc (Charleville); trained for priesthood; began trans. of Homer; chief poet in Munster and presided over court of poetry; merciless satire on death of local landlord, Col. Dawson, followed by refuge abroad; surviving handful of poems include lines on Philip Duc dOrléans; edition of works published by Ó Duinnin [Dinneen] (1902).

NotesThomas Crofton Croker - Croker writes: When at Mallow, I obtained an Irish MS. written by Shane Clarah, or John the minstrel. It is a small thick quarto of about 400 pages, and the contents are chiefly topographical; from this MS. I have made some quotations in the present work. (Researches in the South of Ireland, 1824, p.102; see full text in RICORSO Library, Irish Classics, via index, or direct.)